Sr. Director, EU Payment Operations & Strategy

The Company
PayPal has been revolutionizing commerce globally for more than 25 years. Creating innovative experiences that make moving money, selling, and shopping simple, personalized, and secure, PayPal empowers consumers and businesses in approximately 200 markets to join and thrive in the global economy.
We operate a global, two-sided network at scale that connects hundreds of millions of merchants and consumers. We help merchants and consumers connect, transact, and complete payments, whether they are online or in person. PayPal is more than a connection to third-party payment networks. We provide proprietary payment solutions accepted by merchants that enable the completion of payments on our platform on behalf of our customers.
We offer our customers the flexibility to use their accounts to purchase and receive payments for goods and services, as well as the ability to transfer and withdraw funds. We enable consumers to exchange funds more safely with merchants using a variety of funding sources, which may include a bank account, a PayPal or Venmo account balance, PayPal and Venmo branded credit products, a credit card, a debit card, certain cryptocurrencies, or other stored value products such as gift cards, and eligible credit card rewards. Our PayPal, Venmo, and Xoom products also make it safer and simpler for friends and family to transfer funds to each other. We offer merchants an end-to-end payments solution that provides authorization and settlement capabilities, as well as instant access to funds and payouts. We also help merchants connect with their customers, process exchanges and returns, and manage risk. We enable consumers to engage in cross-border shopping and merchants to extend their global reach while reducing the complexity and friction involved in enabling cross-border trade.
Our beliefs are the foundation for how we conduct business every day. We live each day guided by our core values of Inclusion, Innovation, Collaboration, and Wellness. Together, our values ensure that we work together as one global team with our customers at the center of everything we do – and they push us to ensure we take care of ourselves, each other, and our communities.
Job Summary:
This job focuses on establishing a unified vision for a product portfolio or platform product and leading its strategic development with cross-functional teams. It shapes the architectural roadmap to balance innovation, regulatory needs, and profitability while prioritizing customer experience. The position uses metrics from usability studies and market analysis to inform decisions and standardizes workstreams for data-driven insights. It also oversees product profitability and manages a team of product managers to enhance collaboration in a dynamic environment. This job is an individual contributor.
Job Description:
Essential Responsibilities:
* Establish a shared vision across the company for a portfolio of products, or platform products enabling development & scalability, with a deliberate and cohesive strategy.
* Leads product strategy development, and develops a clear, executable view of the product portfolio strategy with cross-functional stakeholders.
* Shapes the architectural roadmap and balances innovative design and technical implementation, while balancing regulatory requirements, time-to-market, meeting customer needs and product profitability.
* Champions the customer experience and prioritizes customer needs in product requirements and decision making.
* Defines and uses metrics that inform the success of products including usability studies, research and market analysis.
* Standardizes workstreams to include analytics, customer discovery, market research and competitive analysis to drive data-driven decision-making.
* Responsible for product portfolio profitability, including budgetary decisions.
* Leads operational mechanisms that drive execution and accountability including Product Reviews, Operating Reviews, and Business Reviews. Interfaces with senior leadership as needed.
* Maximizes efficiency in a constantly evolving environment where the process is fluid and creative solutions are the standard.
Minimum Qualifications:
* 12+ years relevant experience and a Bachelor’s degree OR Any equivalent combination of education and experience.
* 5 years of experience leading others
Additional Responsibilities & Preferred Qualifications:
Department: Payments Operations & Strategy, PayPal EU
Reports to: VP, Payments, PayPal Inc. — with dual accountability to the Luxembourg entity's Management Board on CSSF-supervised matters
# About the Role
PayPal is seeking a Senior Director of Payments Operations and Strategy to lead payments operations and strategic direction for PayPal Europe, with a particular focus on the SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) ecosystem. Based in Luxembourg, home of PayPal's EU-regulated entity, this leader will be accountable for the performance, resilience, and strategic evolution of SEPA-based payment flows — including SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT), SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst), and SEPA Direct Debit (SDD Core and B2B) — across PayPal's European customer and merchant base.
This is a senior leadership role at the intersection of payments strategy, regulatory operations, and cross-border execution, requiring close partnership with PayPal's EU regulatory, compliance, and banking stakeholders, as well as global Payments, Product, and Engineering teams. The role carries direct accountability for ensuring PayPal Europe's SEPA operations meet European Payments Council (EPC) scheme rules, and the operational expectations of the CSSF (Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier) as PayPal's EU competent authority.
# Key Responsibilities
## Strategy & Leadership
* Own the strategic roadmap for PayPal Europe's SEPA payment operations, including SCT, SCT Inst, and SDD, aligned to broader EU payments strategy and PayPal's global payments architecture.
* Represent PayPal Europe's payments strategy in engagements with the European Payments Council, EBA CLEARING, national SEPA associations, and correspondent/agent banks.
* Anticipate and plan for regulatory and scheme evolution, including PSD3/PSR, the SEPA Instant mandate, Instant Payments Regulation compliance deadlines, and IBAN/name-check (Verification of Payee) requirements — including the EU-mandated rollout timeline extending VoP coverage from SCT to SCT Inst transactions.
* Build business cases for expanding instant payments coverage, reducing settlement risk, and optimizing SEPA-related processing costs across EU markets.
* Act as the senior payments voice within PayPal Europe's leadership team, based out of the Luxembourg entity.
## Operations Management
* Own end-to-end SEPA operations: credit transfer and direct debit processing, settlement, reconciliation, R-transaction (returns, refusals, rejects, reversals, refunds) handling, and exception management.
* Define and monitor KPIs specific to SEPA performance: SCT Inst success/settlement times, SDD mandate and dispute rates, R-transaction volumes, ISO 20022 message-quality/straight-through processing rates, and incident mean-time-to-resolution.
* Ensure operational resilience and business continuity for SEPA payment rails, including incident management, root-cause resolution for payment disruptions, and a defined on-call/escalation rotation for the Luxembourg-based operations team.
* Oversee relationships with PayPal's SEPA settlement and correspondent banks, clearing and settlement mechanisms (e.g., EBA CLEARING's STEP2, RT1), and payment infrastructure providers.
* Maintain fluency in ISO 20022 XML messaging standards underlying SEPA schemes, and oversee the operational impact of any scheme-mandated messaging changes.
## Regulatory, Risk & Compliance
* Ensure PayPal Europe's SEPA operations comply with EPC rulebooks (SCT, SCT Inst, SDD Core, SDD B2B), PSD2 (and forthcoming PSD3/PSR), the Instant Payments Regulation, and CSSF supervisory expectations.
* Partner with PayPal's EU Compliance, Legal, and Regulatory Affairs teams on regulatory reporting, audits, and supervisory reviews conducted by or on behalf of the CSSF.
* Own SEPA-related AML/CFT operational controls in partnership with Financial Crimes Compliance, including sanctions and verification-of-payee (VoP) requirements.
* Manage mandate management, dispute, and chargeback frameworks for SDD in line with scheme rules and consumer protection obligations across EU member states.
## Vendor & Stakeholder Management
* Manage and negotiate relationships with SEPA-participating banks, payment infrastructure vendors, and clearing and settlement providers.
* Monitor vendor and bank partner SLAs, driving accountability for settlement timeliness, cost, and service quality.
* Serve as the primary escalation point for SEPA operational issues involving external banking and infrastructure partners.
## Team Leadership
* Potential to lead a team in the future
* Foster close collaboration with PayPal's global Payments Operations organization to ensure European SEPA strategy is integrated with worldwide payments initiatives.
* Establish career development pathways and succession planning as the Luxembourg-based team scales.
## Cross-Functional Collaboration
* Partner with Product and Engineering to influence platform roadmaps supporting SEPA Instant adoption, Verification of Payee, and future scheme changes.
* Work with Finance on SEPA-related cost forecasting, settlement account management, and liquidity planning.
* Collaborate with Customer Experience and Merchant Services teams to reduce friction in SEPA-based transactions for EU consumers and merchants.
# Qualifications
## Required
* 15+ years of experience in payments, fintech, or banking operations, with at le

Work arrangement
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